YouTube Opens Doors to Web Developers

By Geoff Duncan March 12, 2008

Popular video sharing site YouTube has announced an update to its YouTube Data API that enables developers to integrate YouTube into other sites and applications—and the new tools enable developers to deploy a “chromeless” player so embedded YouTube videos don’t have to look like YouTube, along with uploads, write operations, authentication, and internationalized standard feeds. The tools will enable developers to create applications and sites—potentially even full clones of YouTube—that can let users upload video, post comments, manage playlists, all without having to go to the “real” YouTube site.

“Of all the different requests we get as enhancements and possible suggestions to the API platform on YouTube, this is by far the most frequent request,” said YouTube co-founder and engineering lead, appropriately enough, in a video embedded in the YouTube API blog. “How do we allow our user with our with our application, our integration into YouTube, to upload their videos directly to YouTube?”

Developers can control embedded video players via JavaScript or Flash, and the chromeless player enables developers to customize the video playback mechanism to match their own sites and branding.

Although removing branding from YouTube-enabled applications and services might seem like an unusual move from a marketing perspective, YouTube’s goal is to set itself up as a ubiquitous video distribution platform. If it can create an ecosystem of applications and services which rely on YouTube to offer online video functionality for their users, YouTube solidifies its overall user base and increases the sheer number of eyeballs watching YouTube-hosted video.

Editors' Recommendations

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Geoff Duncan writes, programs, edits, plays music, and delights in making software misbehave. He's probably the only member…

Computing

How to make a GIF from a YouTube video

woman sitting and using laptop

Sometimes, whether you're chatting with friends or posting on social media, words just aren't enough -- you need a GIF to fully convey your feelings. If there's a moment from a YouTube video that you want to snip into a GIF, the good news is that you don't need complex software to so it. There are now a bunch of ways to make a GIF from a YouTube video right in your browser.

If you want to use desktop software like Photoshop to make a GIF, then you'll need to download the YouTube video first before you can start making a GIF. However, if you don't want to go through that bother then there are several ways you can make a GIF right in your browser, without the need to download anything. That's ideal if you're working with a low-specced laptop or on a phone, as all the processing to make the GIF is done in the cloud rather than on your machine. With these options you can make quick and fun GIFs from YouTube videos in just a few minutes.
Use GIFs.com for great customization
Step 1: Find the YouTube video that you want to turn into a GIF (perhaps a NASA archive?) and copy its URL.

Computing

A YouTuber created a truly bezel-less MacBook

This MacBook has no bezels, thanks to Luke Miani's screen removal and Vision Pro replacement.

We've all seen the concept art of futuristic MacBooks that completely eliminate the bezels around the screen. Those are pure fantasy, even though Apple has significantly reduced bezel thickness on its most recent MacBooks.

However, those millimeters of wasted screen space on a MacBook can be infuriating, especially compared to the concepts out there.

Computing

Nvidia’s RTX Video can upscale blurry YouTube videos

A screenshot showcasing the effect of Nvidia's RTX Video HDR.

Nvidia's latest driver update does more than just introduce support for the new RTX 4070 Ti Super -- it also enables AI video upscaling through a new feature. Dubbed RTX Video HDR, this feature relies on AI to turn SDR videos into HDR. Enabling it is easy, but there are a couple of caveats.

Nvidia describes it as a new technology, powered by AI and RTX tensor cores, that dynamically converts SDR video to HDR10 quality. This improves visibility and adds more detail, sharpness, and vibrance. Earlier in 2023, Nvidia released a similar feature that now works in tandem with this one, called RTX Video Super Resolution, which upscales videos up to 4K.